Spark M. Matsunaga Dies at 73; Senator Led Fight for Reparations

By PETER B. FLINT

Published: April 16, 1990

Senator Spark M. Matsunaga of Hawaii, a longtime proponent of peaceful resolution of disputes and Soviet-American cooperation in space exploration, died of cancer early yesterday in Toronto General Hospital. He was 73 years old.

Mr. Matsunaga, a liberal Democrat who served 14 years each in the House and the Senate, announced last January he was being treated for prostate and bone cancer. He flew to Toronto last week for accelerated treatments, his press secretary, Edward J. Greaney, said yesterday.

Senator Matsunaga cast his final Senate votes from a wheelchair on April 5 in support of extension of the Clean Air Act. He espoused many measures to replenish the environment, including planes fueled by hydrogen in place of petroleum-based fuel and the development of wind power for commercial ships, a concept being pioneered in Japan.

Hardship and Humiliation

Mr. Matsunaga, a Japanese-American, was the main Senate leader for passage in 1988 of a $1.25 billion bill to give $20,000 and an apology to all Japanese-Americans sent to internment camps in World War II. Addressing the Senate, Mr. Matsunaga, who was wounded twice in Italy during the war, recounted an incident of an elderly internee who crossed a fence to retrieve a ball for his grandchild and was machine-gunned to death.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mr. Matsunaga, though a second lieutenant in the American Army, was detained in a Wisconsin camp. He and other internees, after petitioning President Franklin D. Roosevelt, were allowed to form the 100th Infantry Battalion, which became one of the most highly decorated in history.

The Senator lobbied for 22 years before persuading Congress in 1984 to establish a peace academy program, which awards graduate degrees for helping to settle disputes within and among nations.

In a statement yesterday, Gov. John D. Waihee 3d of Hawaii hailed Mr. Matsunaga's ''humanitarianism'' and added: ''He will be remembered most for his vision of peace and his faith in the human spirit. In his memory we will carry on his quest. In his spirit we will strive for the highest of principles and the brightest of worlds.''

Agnew Incident Recalled

Mr. Matsunaga, a diminutive, convivial man known to longtime associates as ''Sparkie,'' had less impact on legislation than the state's senior Democratic Senator, Daniel K. Inouye, also a decorated war veteran, but he fought hard for goals he cherished.

In 1968, he criticized Spiro T. Agnew for calling a reporter on his Vice Presidential-campaign tour of Hawaii ''a fat Jap.'' Mr. Agnew apologized but expressed regret at what he viewed as a decline in the American sense of humor.

Spark Masayuki Matsunaga was born on Oct. 8, 1916, on the island of Kauai to a poor Japanese immigrant family. He worked at many jobs through high school and the University of Hawaii, where he earned many honors, including election to Phi Beta Kappa, and studied at Harvard Law School under the G.I. benefits bill, graduating in 1951.

He was then successively a Honolulu prosecutor, member and majority leader of the Hawaii territorial House of Representatives. He went to Washington in 1962, serving in the House for seven consecutive terms. In 1976, he was elected to the Senate.

Surviving are his wife, the former Helene Hatsumi Tokunaga, who lived with him in Kensington, Md., and Honolulu; three daughters, Karen Hardman, of Kensington; Diane Segars, of Mississippi, and Merle, of Thailand; two sons, Keene, of Anaheim, Calif., and Matthew, of Honolulu; three brothers, Andrew, Satoru Ikeda and Yutaka Ikeda, all of Honolulu; two sisters, Dorothy Hironaga, of Honolulu, and Mitsuko Ueno, of Hanapepe, Hawaii, and three grandsons.

The body will be flown this week to Honolulu for a state funeral and burial.